Sunday, December 5, 2010

If you are puzzled by the notion of a Muslim women so devout she refuses to take the Headscarf of for a booking photo, but needing that photo because of reportedly crashing a vehicle with a blood alcohol more then twice the legal limit, she said she did not know the punch had been spiked.

"A Muslim woman who refused to remove her headscarf for a Boulder County jail booking photo has been told she'll have to explain her refusal to a judge.

19-year-old Maria Hardman of Boulder, who says she converted to Islam three years ago, pleaded guilty to an alcohol violation and was sentenced to two days in jail plus community service.

She told the Boulder Daily Camera on Friday that removing her headscarf for the photo would violate her beliefs because the Quran calls for Muslim women to wear the scarf except in the company of close family.

A police report said Hardman's blood-alcohol level was 0.19, more than twice the legal limit, after she crashed her motor-scooter in August. Alcohol consumption is generally considered to be banned by Islam.

Hardman said she drank punch provided at a party without knowing it contained alcohol. She said she left after she found out....She said her attorney spent three hours trying to persuade officials to let her wear the scarf for the photo. She said jail officials eventually allowed her to leave without taking her photo, but it's not clear whether she began serving her sentence."